President’s Voice ÔÇô Gideon Sam

As I wrote this update it was early morning in Apia, the capital of Samoa and I was just getting ready for a brisk walk on the beach to keep the fitness levels up.

I’m here for the executive board meeting of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and there were two items on the agenda that have been keeping us busy during our stay.

Samoa will host the next edition of the Youth Commonwealth Games in 2015 and we want to see the state of readiness of the organising committee. The other item is to assess the inputs on the review process started some time back by the CGF. As a board we are preparing a response to the General Assembly later in the year in Glasgow.

Back home and we continue our roller coaster ride with the sweet and sour experiences of South African sport. The recent deaths in the broader sporting family came as a shock to all of us, but I believe we must soldier on and do what our departed ones would have loved us to do ÔÇô and that is practise sport to the fullest.

Soccer’s Afcon Championships are well underway and we are confident that Bafana Bafana will do us proud. Our cricket team have also proved that they are indeed the number one Test team in the world by dealing decisively with New Zealand.

And then Kevin Anderson played his heart out in the Australian Open tennis tournament and our women’s hockey team are also hard at work honing their skills and finesse for the season ahead.

We must also congratulate that motoring maestro, Giniel de Villiers for his great third spot in the grueling Dakar Rally.

The big one for us at SASCOC in the first quarter of 2013 is to visit our provinces to share with their stakeholders our plans for the next four years.

There’s a definite buzz at SASCOC’s Olympic House headquarters and the team under Chief Executive Officer Tubby Reddy is ready to tackle the huge task ahead. The plans are ready and the February board meeting will have an opportunity to make the inputs to these plans.

It’s going to be another exciting year for sport in South Africa and we invite all our stakeholders to join hands with us and make it another memorable year for us.